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C - Data Types

Data types in c refer to an extensive system used for declaring variables or functions of
different types. The type of a variable determines how much space it occupies in storage and
how the bit pattern stored is interpreted.

The types in C can be classified as follows −

Sr.No. Types & Description

1 Basic Types

They are arithmetic types and are further classified into: (a) integer types and (b)
floating-point types.

2 Enumerated types

They are again arithmetic types and they are used to define variables that can
only assign certain discrete integer values throughout the program.

3 The type void

The type specifier void indicates that no value is available.

4
Derived types

They include (a) Pointer types, (b) Array types, (c) Structure types, (d) Union
types and (e) Function types.

The array types and structure types are referred collectively as the aggregate types. The type
of a function specifies the type of the function's return value. We will see the basic types in
the following section, where as other types will be covered in the upcoming chapters.

Integer Types
The following table provides the details of standard integer types with their storage sizes and
value ranges −

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Type Storage size Value range

char 1 byte -128 to 127 or 0 to 255

unsigned char 1 byte 0 to 255

signed char 1 byte -128 to 127

-32,768 to 32,767 or -2,147,483,648 to

int 2 or 4 bytes
2,147,483,647

unsigned int 2 or 4 bytes 0 to 65,535 or 0 to 4,294,967,295

short 2 bytes -32,768 to 32,767

unsigned short 2 bytes 0 to 65,535

long 8 bytes or -9223372036854775808 to

(4bytes for 32 9223372036854775807
bit OS)

unsigned long 8 bytes 0 to 18446744073709551615

To get the exact size of a type or a variable on a particular platform, you can use the sizeof
operator. The expressions sizeof(type) yields the storage size of the object or type in bytes.
Given below is an example to get the size of various type on a machine using different
constant defined in limits.h header file −

Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <float.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {

printf("CHAR_BIT : %d\n", CHAR_BIT);

printf("CHAR_MAX : %d\n", CHAR_MAX);
printf("CHAR_MIN : %d\n", CHAR_MIN);
printf("INT_MAX : %d\n", INT_MAX);
printf("INT_MIN : %d\n", INT_MIN);
printf("LONG_MAX : %ld\n", (long) LONG_MAX);
printf("LONG_MIN : %ld\n", (long) LONG_MIN);
printf("SCHAR_MAX : %d\n", SCHAR_MAX);
printf("SCHAR_MIN : %d\n", SCHAR_MIN);
printf("SHRT_MAX : %d\n", SHRT_MAX);
printf("SHRT_MIN : %d\n", SHRT_MIN);

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printf("UCHAR_MAX : %d\n", UCHAR_MAX);

printf("UINT_MAX : %u\n", (unsigned int) UINT_MAX);
printf("ULONG_MAX : %lu\n", (unsigned long) ULONG_MAX);
printf("USHRT_MAX : %d\n", (unsigned short) USHRT_MAX);

return 0;
}

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result on Linux
−

CHAR_BIT : 8
CHAR_MAX : 127
CHAR_MIN : -128
INT_MAX : 2147483647
INT_MIN : -2147483648
LONG_MAX : 9223372036854775807
LONG_MIN : -9223372036854775808
SCHAR_MAX : 127
SCHAR_MIN : -128
SHRT_MAX : 32767
SHRT_MIN : -32768
UCHAR_MAX : 255
UINT_MAX : 4294967295
ULONG_MAX : 18446744073709551615
USHRT_MAX : 65535

Floating-Point Types
The following table provide the details of standard floating-point types with storage sizes and
value ranges and their precision −

Type Storage size Value range Precision

float 4 byte 1.2E-38 to 3.4E+38 6 decimal places

double 8 byte 2.3E-308 to 1.7E+308 15 decimal places

long double 10 byte 3.4E-4932 to 1.1E+4932 19 decimal places

The header file float.h defines macros that allow you to use these values and other details
about the binary representation of real numbers in your programs. The following example
prints the storage space taken by a float type and its range values −

Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>

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#include <stdlib.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <float.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {

printf("Storage size for float : %d \n", sizeof(float));

printf("FLT_MAX : %g\n", (float) FLT_MAX);
printf("FLT_MIN : %g\n", (float) FLT_MIN);
printf("-FLT_MAX : %g\n", (float) -FLT_MAX);
printf("-FLT_MIN : %g\n", (float) -FLT_MIN);
printf("DBL_MAX : %g\n", (double) DBL_MAX);
printf("DBL_MIN : %g\n", (double) DBL_MIN);
printf("-DBL_MAX : %g\n", (double) -DBL_MAX);
printf("Precision value: %d\n", FLT_DIG );

return 0;
}

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result on Linux
−

Storage size for float : 4

FLT_MAX : 3.40282e+38
FLT_MIN : 1.17549e-38
-FLT_MAX : -3.40282e+38
-FLT_MIN : -1.17549e-38
DBL_MAX : 1.79769e+308
DBL_MIN : 2.22507e-308
-DBL_MAX : -1.79769e+308
Precision value: 6

The void Type

The void type specifies that no value is available. It is used in three kinds of situations −

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Sr.No. Types & Description

1 Function returns as void

There are various functions in C which do not return any value or you can say
they return void. A function with no return value has the return type as void. For
example, void exit (int status);

2 Function arguments as void

There are various functions in C which do not accept any parameter. A function
with no parameter can accept a void. For example, int rand(void);

3 Pointers to void

A pointer of type void * represents the address of an object, but not its type. For
example, a memory allocation function void *malloc( size_t size ); returns a
pointer to void which can be casted to any data type.

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